The Lynhall No. 3945 Edina — Restaurant in Edina

I visited for afternoon tea with a friend as we make our way through the tea offerings in the Twin Cities. First, the atmosphere. The space is bright and open, with bistro tables and a few booth nooks along the wall. It’s cute, quite modern. We were sat at a small round table right next to the window, where there is a nice cozy heater to keep you warm. Lots of people walking by, peeping through the windows so we felt a bit on display, but no biggie. Maybe frosting the glass a few feet from the bottom would feel less vulnerable?

Hostess was super sweet, dropped us at our table with menus. Our food was dropped on the table immediately, and we waited about 5 minutes to be served our tea. I would vastly prefer to be served tea right away before the food comes out. There was a good selection of tea - served loose leaf in a pot, so once you chose a flavor, it didn’t seem like you could switch. Cream and sugar were very small portions - 3 packets of sugar and 2 sweetener packets. I really didn’t like being served sugar packets! Lumps would have been much better. Tea was refilled once - you place your pot lid off on the side of the table to indicate you’d like a refill. I waited about 5 minutes for mine.

We ate after we finally got our tea. The savories were fine - I liked the variety. The mortadella sandwich wasn’t my favorite, and the baked potato tartlet was oddly sweet?

Scones were absolutely delightful. 2 each, and they were cakey and flakey. The cheese and garlic one was quite large, and I would have liked some butter to go with it. This is the first tea I’ve been to in the twin cities with real clotted cream!! Hurrah! I didn’t want to waste the small shared pots of clotted cream on the huge savory scone. The cream scone was amazing with the accompaniments.

Desserts were so yummy! The carrot cake felt like a large portion with a bit too much frosting and the rhubarb tartlet completely fell apart after once bite. I loved the chocolate pot de crème with mango, and the strawberry trifle was soooo good.

We had to wait for a very long time to be checked in on after our second pot of tea - about 20 minutes. Server was very quick once we asked for the tab, but I felt like I had to interrupt her bussing other tables.

Things I liked: Such cute china, the table full of tea-themed books and items for sale was adorable. Beautiful space and friendly service.

Picky things: Tea should always be served before the food. Tiers were arranged oddly - savory should be on the bottom, scones in the middle, and sweets on top. Service should be paced a bit better - they seemed to be very busy and unable to check on tables enough.

Cost was 60 per person. Priced more expensively than other places. This is, in my opinion, quite high for the tea and I would expect a bit more for it, but this was better than other expensive tea options like the...

This is the worst afternoon tea I’ve ever had. I don’t understand how a place that serves afternoon tea can’t even get the absolute basics of brewing tea right. To start, all of the teas are stored in glass jars on a little cart. While very cute, the glass jars cause the tea to degrade quickly which causes it to be rather flavorless. When it was time to order, each person got a personal teapot and it’s $5 if you want to switch teas. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this as every other place I’ve been to allows unlimited tea including unlimited switching, but fine, just a bit annoying. However, they throw the tea leaves straight into the pot and give you an empress strainer for your cup. Teas have different steep times after which they become bitter and astringent (unless you’re drinking an herbal) so after your first or second cup, depending on how quickly you drink, your tea is no longer palatable so you’ve just wasted the rest of the pot. Oh, and that $5 I mentioned, that’s not just for if you switch teas, that’s also for if you get a fresh pot because otherwise they just refill your current pot with hot water so not only has your tea been WAY oversteeped to begin with, but then they just want to throw even more hot water on it to where it’s even more astringent and the flavor diluted. I don’t understand how this is considered drinkable for anyone and I certainly don’t think it’s reasonable to expect to essentially pay $5 for every cup of tea which you would have to do to have every cup be drinkable.

To top it off, there’s a 5% health and wellness fee which is not disclosed beforehand (which legally must be disclosed beforehand) and an extra fee for using a credit card (which is also not disclosed beforehand even though it is legally required to be).

As for the rest, the food was mediocre with the scones and croissant being dry and service was inattentive

The real cherry on top was that we were charged an extra $10pp for the Valentine’s Day tea the weekend after Valentine’s Day despite the the website implying that Valentine’s Day pricing was on actual Valentine’s Day only and the weekend afternoon tea would be priced as normal.

In terms of pro’s, the atmosphere is cute and we received a complimentary glass of champagne each.

I will...

We made a reservation for Sunday at 11 AM. I was looking forward to being there because they have English tea time, and I wanted to check out this place first. The server was borderline rude, or MN nice who does not like foreigners. She served my husband coffee first, and I waited for my tea for about 10 minutes. For a place with English touches, there is no proper English breakfast on the menu, and the tea selection is nonexistent. I ordered London Fog, but it was made with tea without bergamot. It also was sugary, like ice cream. Next, we tried the pastry called cricket, similar to Apple fritter. It costs us $5 for a flat dry-up not even a baseball-size circle yeast bread with fake frosting and no apples. Did I say that it was flat? The biggest disappointment was the breakfast. It was served in a bowl, swammed in grease, and not eatable. I ordered gnocchi, one of the most expensive selections they serve. At ordering, the waitress took the time to correct me on pronouncing gnocchi. I was surprised because I had a hard time hearing anything in a place that had more of a vibe of a bar than a restaurant. My eggs were cooked in oil, not butter. They were overeasy, but the whites were uncooked. The seasonal vegetables were good, but for how cheap vegetables are, carrots and Brussels, there was not much of them. The gnocchi was not gnocchi. They were most likely frozen first and not made in-house. The bottom of my bowl was half a cup of green grease. I tasted my food and drink but I didn’t eat or drink any of it. During that time, I observed what people were eating there. I can say, it was cocktails. This place makes money on buzze. the drinks cost the same as the items on the menu. There were no people our age, or couples. In a room of what I could see 30, there was just one young couple with a baby. The correcting waitress asked my husband…and not ME, if I want to take my food home.? I have never been so, insulted and hungry at the same time. I hope you close your doors...soon...